Pneumatic aviation tires for service on aircraft landing gears are exposed to severe operating conditions of load and acceleration. In particular, pneumatic aviation tires married with the landing gears of large commercial airliners are susceptible to severe deformation upon landing, takeoffs, and controlled movement of the aircraft under its own power while on the ground (e.g., taxiing). Loss of a landing gear tire on takeoff (e.g., a blowout) may result in an aborted take-off or an emergency landing. Loss of a tire on the landing gear upon landing may result in an inability to halt the airliner's momentum, leading to runway overshoot. Airliners often elevate tire temperature by taxiing long distances and/or by taxiing fast, which may increase the susceptibility to blowouts during takeoff or after landing.
Typically, the belt package incorporated into conventional aviation pneumatic tires includes a number of cut belt layers and a number of spiral wound layers formed from cord reinforced strip(s) wound about the circumference of the tire with a zero degree spiral overlay. The spiral wound layers terminate proximate the tire shoulder with no overlap as the winding direction is reversed to apply the successive spiral wound layers.
One conventional approach for improving tire durability is increase the number of belt layers uniformly from crown to shoulder. However, this approach results in significant tire weight increases. The tire weight increase from the added layers is contrary to another tire design parameter for minimizing the net weight of the airliner. Increasing the number of belt layers uniformly between the crown and the shoulder also significantly increases the tire's production cost.
For these and other reasons, it would be desirable to provide a lightweight pneumatic tire for airliner landing gears characterized by improved durability and greater load-carrying capability.